Archive for yahoo local search
How Your Business Could Rank Well On Local Search
Posted by: | CommentsLately, a lot of businesses worldwide have realized the advantages of ranking well on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. A typical company with a modest marketing budget would consider either hiring a professional SEO or starting a Pay-Per-Click campaign.
The first option (the cheaper of the two) involves a dedicated effort of at least a few weeks(or months if the keyword is competitive), after which your website’s rankings for key phrases start rising. The second option, PPC, can give you instant results and ROI, depending on your budget and the keyword competitiveness. But what do smaller business like mom and pop stores do? How would they get a piece of the pie? The answer is Local Business Listings. These are listings that show up when locally targeted keywords are searched for, and are displayed above the organic search results, like so:
Google Search Result Page
With listings so predominant, it would be a crime not to take advantage of this, especially if you can do it for FREE. All you need to do for your business to show up is-
1) Create a Google account
2) Login to Google Local Business Center
3) Fill in all the information
4) Complete the verification process
The whole process does not take more than 15 minutes to complete and your listing starts showing up within a day or two. Quite an easy way to get traffic to your website wouldn’t you say? Not really. There are literally 100’s such listings that you will compete with, especially if you are located in the city.
So how do you rise above the others? Here are a bunch of tips that can help increase your chances of ranking well on Local Listings:
1) Fill out your business listing comprehensively- Put in all the information you can about your business. All your phone numbers, images of your shop/office, videos(if you have any), payments modes accepted and any other additional specifics.
2) Correct the location marker- Once you put in your address, Google dynamically places a placemarker on the map. If the location is not precise, you can manually correct it. This is more so that people looking for your location are able to spot you precisely(Imagine if a customer turns up at the wrong location! That’s one prospective customer lost.)
3) Provide proper categories- Make sure that the categories that you list your business under are a precise as possible. Once you start typing within the box , you’ll get a list of suggested categories, which are usually the most popular ones. Entering these as products/services you offer will increase the chances of your listing showing up, since these are terms that people actually search for.
4) Include your product/service in your business title- For example, “Joe Friday’s” could be changed to “Joe Friday’s Plumbing Services”. This will highlight the service- “Plumbing Services” and will increase your click-through rate.
5) Get customers to review you- Google generates reviews from popular websites like TrueLocal, CitySearch, TripAdvisor, InsiderPages and so on. Requesting your clients to rate you based on their experiences is a good idea. This will help increase your credibility of your business and convince prospects to contact you.
6) Offer Coupons- Adding an incentive though coupons for visitors through the Local Listing will increase your enquiries and help keep your listing active. Remember- search engines love businesses that are active on the web.
Keeping these few points in mind could really prove to be a golden duck for your business, especially when click-through-rates for these listings are comparable to an exceptional PPC Campaign!
http://pragmites.com/blog/2009/06/16/how-your-business-could-rank-well-on-local-search/
A Look at Why InfoUSA, and Others Are So Important in Local Search
Posted by: | CommentsDavid Mihm has some of the best information about local search on the web. This is another great post with practical advice for local search optimization. -Editor
Frequent readers know that for five months a year, I have college basketball on the brain. But while the hardwood is vacant, I happily fix my gaze upon the college gridiron for a few months.
- Writers, coaches, and the computers all weigh at 33%, creating a ranking of the top teams in the country.
- Five bowls are designated as “BCS” and each pays out a ridiculous sum of money to the conferences and 10 teams who are represented in them.
- The traditional powerhouse conferences in NCAA football — the SEC, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-10 — are known as “BCS” leagues because the champion of each automatically earns a berth in the BCS Bowl system.
- There are four “at-large” positions available to teams from smaller conferences (Boise State being the most notable at-large by virtue of its win over Oklahoma in 2007.), but these tend to be filled by some combination of runners-up in the power leagues, too.
- (Side note: Why college football doesn’t just do away with the BCS and just have a selection committee is beyond my comprehension.)
My assertion with this article is that the college football BCS serves as a great analogy for Local Search–only in this case BCS stands for “Best Citation Sources.” For those unfamiliar with my use of the word ‘Citation’ as it pertains to Local Search, please check out my initial post on Citations from last month.
Let me explain why I think the Best Citation Source analogy is so appropriate:
- It doesn’t always work out to each factor having 33% influence, but Local Business Listing information, On-Page SEO Criteria, and Off-Page SEO Criteria are the three main contributors in the Local Search algorithms. Kind of like the coaches, writers, and computers in the football BCS.
- As with the BCS bowl system, there are 10 sites selected for inclusion in the Google Local 10-pack.
- The top 10 Local results all pay out ridiculous amounts of traffic (and hopefully profit if you’ve got a good website!).
- The sites that are referenced by the “Best Citation Sources” have a disproportionate chance of making it into the 10-pack ahead of those who are not cited by those sources.
So who makes up the BCS of the Local Search world, and why are they so important?
Here’s my take, anyway, in no particular order. Would love to hear all of your faves in the comments 
1) InfoUSA – InfoUSA is basically the original YellowPages data provider, and IMHO should be the starting point for any Local online business. Why? Lots and lots of what I would call “crappy” directory-style websites have purchased data from InfoUSA and published it online (and some good ones, too, like Yahoo Local and CitySearch). Just do a Google search for “business data provided by infoUSA” (in quotes) and add your city name at the end, and you will see what I mean. (Like this.) Listings in these kinds of directories that have scraped InfoUSA data often count as citations. Additionally, a large percentage of Local Business Listings will also show a citation from “daplus.us,” usually as the very last in the list. DaPlus is a subsidiary of infoUSA, according to their website. Here’s where to submit your business to InfoUSA »
2) Superpages.com – One of my clients recently moved offices, staying in the same city but a few blocks away to a more prominent space. I actually hadn’t done any Local optimization for them in quite a while, so I had to create a brand new listing for them in Superpages. In less than 10 days it was showing up as a “Web Page” citation in their Google Local Business Listing. That kind of speed leads me to believe that Google is spidering Superpages.com quite frequently. Superpages results also show up for incredibly uncompetitive searches. Signing up is free, quick, and painless. Here’s where to submit your business to Superpages »
3) Acxiom - See InfoUSA. Again, lots of crappy directories, in this case even more than from InfoUSA, have bought their data set from Acxiom. Look at this search. And again, lots of those directories show up as citations. The problem is, with Acxiom, there’s no way to submit your business. I’ll buy a beer for, and happily link to the website of, the first person who can lay out for us how to submit to Acxiom’s data set online!
4) Localeze – Localeze is an interesting case. I believe they inked a distribution deal with Yahoo awhile back (though now I can’t seem to find that reference), and I know they signed one with ShopLocal.com recently, and (this is a biggie) they appear to be the main content provider that has seeded Marchex’s entire OpenList network. Check out this search. The Marchex network itself shows up with increasing frequency as citation material, and would be reason enough to submit to Localeze, even without any other distribution deals going forward. Basically, while I see InfoUSA and Acxiom as vestigial players from the print world who will eventually become obsolete, Localeze is the evolving organ that is poised to be a MAJOR player. So even though Localeze might not carry as much weight now, I encourage businesses to sign up with them for future success. Here’s how to submit your business to Localeze »
5) Yelp – As with SuperPages, the updated address for my own Yelp listing showed up in Google Local within 10 days of me changing it. I’m also seeing a lot of my clients’ competitors getting cited via Yelp…Google seems to be spidering it like CRAZY these days (maybe because they know they’ve got one of the best and most up-to-date Local data sets, at least on the West Coast?). Submitting your business to Yelp is difficult, but do a search for your business in your town, and if you don’t show up, look for the button at the bottom right side of the main content area that says “Add Business.”
6) InsiderPages – I’m a BIG fan of this website & I don’t think it gets nearly enough buzz in the SEO community. The ‘Web Pages’ tab for my own site shows a limited number of citations (I just updated with my new address in Portland last month), but InsiderPages is one of them. I think of it as sort of the Pac-10 of the Local SEO BCS. It’s rare that you see an InsiderPages result show up as a citation, but when you do see one, it carries a lot of weight (think USC vs. the rest of the Pac-10 conference). Interestingly enough, it looks like InsiderPages is an affiliate of CitySearch, judging by the links in the footer. Didn’t know that until today. Here’s where to submit your business to InsiderPages »
The best of the “Mid-Majors” :
Citysearch – Can be VERY powerful, and reviews are spidered very well. If I ever expand my BCS to a seventh site, this would be it. But it can be pricey (there are no free listings), especially in the larger metro areas, and if your goal is simply to rank well in the 10-pack, I think your money would be better invested elsewhere. I also think that CitySearch is becoming too large a player and either they’re going to fight Google on syndicating their content OR Google is going to stop showing CitySearch references because they’re building brand value for too great a competitor.
TripAdvisor - If you’re in the travel industry, this site is a MUST. Mary Bowling of Blizzard Internet would know more about SEO for this industry than I would, but I bet she’d agree.
DexKnows – Intuitively, it seems like I’m starting to see this site popping up more and more under the “Web Pages” tab, but I don’t have any hard data, or even any soft data, to back it up.
OpenList – See my comments above re:DexKnows AND Localeze…
I will say that the most important citation sources do seem to vary a good deal by industry. As I mentioned earlier, Hotels and Spas would do well to look at TripAdvisor. Restaurants get cited in Zagat’s. Lawyers get cited on Martindale-Hubbell’s Lawyers.com. Basically, if there’s a traditional print source that has served as a reference in your industry for decades, make sure you’re listed there. If their website has ANY kind of pulse (i.e. is not built in Flash or completely form-dependent), it’s likely to be crawled by the search engines and counted as a citation.
The best strategy you can use as a starting point for finding your own “BCS,” analogous to linkbuilding in traditional SEO, is to look at sites that are doing well in Local and where they are being cited. Lots of times if they’re standard directories, with just a little digging, you can be listed there as well.
http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/general-marketing/the-bcs-for-local-seo/
Local Search Optimization Tips From Cory Barbot
Posted by: | CommentsThis is a very helpful video with some great local search optimization tips. -Editor
I interviewed Cory Barbot, a Natural Search Specialist and resident expert on local search, at Apogee Search. He took some time to explain local search and how to use it to your advantage. Below are some of the highlights from our discussion:
Example of Google local search. Click to see the image larger.
Cory began by explaining that local search is basically a search engine within a search engine. Google displays refined search results using location in addition to the keywords. In Google, a map will be displayed along with company listings near that location.
According to Cory, Google’s Universal Search has made local search more important in search marketing. Universal Search is a version of Google search results that include a variety of different types of media among search results, not just text links to websites. This is now the primary display method that Google uses for its search results pages.
Local search results are determined by a different algorithm than natural results, but the algorithm’s variables are very similar to the natural search result algorithm. A key difference between the two is that local search considers citations, not just inbound links. Citations are references to a business that use addresses or phone numbers rather than a link. This can really help smaller businesses rank well within local search because they can often gain citations more easily than links.
Cory then offered some tips to help businesses optimize for local search.
- Incorporate the city within the title and meta tags. Search engines will use this to determine the cities to list the page under.
- Include the company address on each page of the website. This makes it easier for the search engines to see that a company matches a certain address.
- Submit to Google Local Business Center. You can submit your business’ information and Google will verify it. This can be done even of you do not have a website for your business.
These are great tips that any business can implement to improve their local search strategies.
SEO Odds & Ends Wednesday: Fire up Some Local Search for the 4th of July!
Posted by: | CommentsEven seasonal businesses like flash in the pans like fireworks vendors (pun intended) can make great use of local search. Learn some great techniques here. -Editor
For this week’s installation of SEO odds & ends, I really had to dig–fireworks companies around Austin don’t have a great presence in the search engines. I’m basing these comments on my personal searches for “austin fireworks” in Google, Yahoo, and Bing. A few factors are causing the lack of individual fireworks shops/stands in search engine results, from what I can tell: first, the incredibly high seasonality impact might lead to less investment and/or focus on year-round marketing; also, this industry has competition from fire departments and several large directories that dominate search results, which aren’t quite what I’m looking for when I’m searching for fireworks in Austin.
Eventually I found Mr. W Fireworks, and have a few tips that may increase their search engine presence:
- Claim your listing in Google Local
- In Google Local Business Center, small businesses (or large ones!) can claim their business name and address in just a matter of minutes. Many small businesses can scoop up hundreds of visits to their site just by listing themselves in the “10-pack.” Mr. W can claim all of their locations that have a mailing address on Google Local Business, which could take awhile but could drive some serious traffic!
- Submit your company name plus a descriptive keyword–for Mr. W, a good option may be “Mr. W Austin Fireworks Stand.” Tip: Using the keyword within the name of your company will help search engines associate your company with your industry, as well as keep your potential visitors informed as to what your business does.It is also possible to type in your own related “category.”
- Encourage customers to submit reviews, upload your own videos and images, and list as much information as you can in the overview section. Finally, in this tricky economy, uploading coupons never hurts!
- Create specific pages for each location served
- Since Mr. W has locations in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, creating pages on the site that describe the locations they serve could also greatly increase traffic. By using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, you can find approximate local and global search volume for a large selection of terms. I have found that major cities like Austin, Dallas, and Oklahoma City have the largest search volume, so creating those pages would be a great start.
- For other Local Search Optimization tips, see our video blog post on the topic from one of Apogee’s search experts!
- Add more content to the Fun Stuff & Safety sections
- Search engines want to rank sites with lots of content that they hope will be valuable to users. Mr. W’s website has a couple of great pages to include that crawlable content on, including “Fireworks Fun Stuff” and “Fireworks Safety.” Building these pages out over time will help improve the site in the eyes of the search engine algorithms!
- Request videos of client fireworks displays and embed them on the “Fun Stuff” page. We have talked about the basics of video submission and optimization for video sharing sites, which can be extremely valuable, as well.
http://www.apogee-search.com/Blog/index.php/seo-odds-ends-wednesday-fire-up-some-local-search-for-the-4th-of-july
Getting Noticed in Local Search
Posted by: | Comments
Yahoo Local
ComScore estimates that local search makes up for about 16% of all searches, and some sources estimate it to be as high as 25%. If you separate out mobile searches, you’d find those numbers to be even higher, as mobile users are interested in finding local businesses to fill immediate needs. So if you’re a business that is targeting local customers, you can’t ignore local search.
Local online directories include the following:
Yahoo Local
Citysearch.com
Yellowpages.com, Insiderpages.com and Superpages.com
Yelp.com
Merchantcircle.com
Local search optimization overlaps SEO (search engine optimization) and SMM (social media marketing), so you’ll find this blog post to mention suggestions for both. If you want to have a local search presence but don’t know what to do, here are a few suggestions to get started.
GetListed.org
First step – go find out if you’re there already, and if so, what does your listing look like and what user reviews are present. You can also go to GetListed.org and see at a glance if you have a presence in four big online directories (see the screen shot to your left). Listening and observing is always the first step when considering any social media marketing.
Next, list yourself in each directory possible, and fully complete your profile. Don’t forget to upload a photo or a logo if they allow it.
Then, consider creating pages on your web site which are optimized for very specific local search terms. For example, if you have a page optimized already for widgets, then create new content pages which are optimized for Ventura widgets, widgets in Ventura California, etc. Remember not to get over ambitious and try to optimize a page for too many key words or phrases (2-3 on a page will do it). Optimization for natural search includes creating a meta title which includes your key phrase, creating a meta description which includes your key phrase, and including your key phrases in the meta key words for the page. Also, use the same key phrase as your title on the page (typically as an H1 tag) and in the body of the page as well. Don’t forget to use the key phrase when labeling video or putting alt tags on images as well.
A good next step is to solicit your happy customers to write reviews on local search sites about your business. Please, please, don’t write your own reviews… we all know it’s really you.
And last, but not least – track your results!!! If you use Google Analytics, for example, you can easily see where your content is coming from (referring web sites), and what pages on your site are being visited. Another great key performance indicator is to simply Google the local key word or phrase you optimized your pages for and see where you rank. (There are lots of programs which do this for you, too.)
Please remember that Local Search is long tail marketing. That means its very niche oriented which makes it extremely important to understand who your visitor or buyer is. Don’t focus on yourself, but focus on the different personas who will be finding your site through these channels, and try to appeal to them. That means that you may want to kill the hard sell (it’s not pay-per-click!) and just try giving useful information. One very successful technique for doing well in local search is creating local blogs. If you have a motorcycle shop that is near three cities, for example, consider creating three separate blogs, one for each city. Since local search is about the user, think about how the user might search to find you. Would they look for a motorcycle shop in the next town? Or would they only look in their town?
The wave of local search, I believe, is just gaining momentum. With all the information at your users fingertips today, local search allows them to get more immediate information about your company. Don’t discount the huge number of people who favor local search, but instead, start by making the changes I recommend above, or by seeking help from a social media marketing company.
(One more tip: if you’re a local business and your SMM consultant doesn’t recommend any work in local search, you should ask them why. We find that some social media “experts” don’t fully understand that social media marketing is about a lot more than Facebook and Twitter. Don’t be afraid to make them explain to you what their tactics are, and why. It is your dime.)
http://www.yoursocialsurrogate.com/getting-noticed-in-local-search/
